KEEPING FIT WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
As I have mentioned before in this column, I have been teaching skiing for over 40 years. How does this relate to teaching golf? Well, the President of the USGTF and I were both funseekers at a ski resort in Vermont in another life, he being the Chief of Funseekers. He has asked me to relate some of my experiences in teaching skiing to teaching golf. There are a remarkable number of similarities, as you would expect. Stance and...
On not giving up
Dear Student, So the greatest game in the world has humbled you a bit, has it? Welcome to the club. It’s a club with millions of members. In fact, everyone who has ever driven a ball off the first tee – Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and every weekend hacker who’s on the tee right this very second – is in it. You’ve got a lot of good company. Believe it or not, joining this club is actually vital if you want to get out of the...
A Teacher’s Primer on the HISTORY OF THE THREE-WEDGES
It wasn’t too long ago that a “standard” set of golf clubs consisted of a driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 2-through-9 irons, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and putter. Notice that, with this set, there is a strong emphasis on the long game. In recent years, golf professionals have come to appreciate that most strokes in golf are taken within 100 yards of the hole. Therefore, set make-up has evolved to emphasize these shots – specifically, with...
Daly’s Dynamite Lob-Wedge Game
I’m sure you’d admit that John Daly is the “everyman” of golf – a PGA Tour player your students most love to watch blast drives 300-plus yards. As long as Daly is off the tee, he has often been criticized by the game’s purists for his unorthodox driving technique, namely his extra-lengthy backswing. Ironically, Jack Nicklaus, Daly’s golf idol, was also mocked in his early days for both his flying right elbow at the top of the swing...
The Evolution of GOLF EQUIPMENT AND THE TEACHER
Ah, there’s nothing like the feeling of hitting a golf ball a long, long way, watching it soar seemingly forever. It doesn’t get much better than that, as they say. As late as the mid 1970s, technology in golf clubs and balls was so primitive that equipment played a very small role in the development and improvement of the average golfer. Most golfers knew the key to improving was to improve their skills. Looking back just 30...
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